Social effects on mate choices of male Japanese quail,Coturnix japonica

In four experiments, we examined effects on affiliative preferences of 'focal' male Japanese quail of seeing a conspecific female interact with another male. Each experiment was conducted in three 10-min phases: (1) a pretest during which a focal male chose between two females; (2) an observation phase, when each focal male watched the female he had spent more time near during the pretest (his 'preferred' female) interact with another male …